


Persephone

by Hellsnextboss



Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers, Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers Spoilers, Gen, Implied Relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-19
Updated: 2020-07-19
Packaged: 2021-03-05 06:35:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 858
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25369978
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hellsnextboss/pseuds/Hellsnextboss
Summary: He cannot ignore the resemblance, even if he wants to.
Relationships: Solus zos Galvus | Emet-Selch/Reader, Solus zos Galvus | Emet-Selch/Warrior of Light
Comments: 3
Kudos: 39





	Persephone

**Author's Note:**

> Drabble that has been sitting in my WIP's for far too long from when I finished the Shadowbringers story, because the idea that he knew you as an Amaurotine got me good.

A ‘warrior of light’. A meddlesome sort; he's come across many of the same before you. Wherever he goes, whatever age of chaos, whatever civilisation he holds the reigns over, they inevitably show up.

Yet none before have been able to cross from one world to another like you; it’s interesting enough to warrant his attention. This ‘warrior of light’ he follows to a dying world, one that is oh so close to being ripe for the rejoining, to see what they will do, how they might struggle, the choices they will make.

He doesn’t expect the form it takes to be one that looks so familiar.

It’s not the same, not identical but he cannot ignore the resemblance. For a time, he tries, watching, observing from the shadows as you fight, as you make your choices, as you consume the essence of creatures that would destroy the body and soul of any other.

He cannot ignore the resemblance, even if he wants to. You are but a crude shade, an obscured reflection, an offensive mockery, an untalented mummer. But you're one that happens to be masquerading as a former lover.

You’re different from the rest of your peers. In you, he sees the evidence of past work, of progress, of a soul having become more _whole_ again with each rejoining ushered in. He cannot ignore the resemblance and it ignites a spark of something he hasn’t felt in so very long.

A fleeting dream; a flicker of hope, that all these years have not been for naught, that those loved and lost may yet still be returned to him, the one he sees in you among them.

Of course, you don’t know; you don’t remember. Six times rejoined, it is not enough for you to remember. But still, he tries. He answers your questions and alludes to a past you once lived in another time, another place, but it is not enough. It's never enough. There is still so much of yourself, _too_ _much_ , missing. You do not remember, even though he so desperately wants you to.

If anyone can become whole, can rejoin all severed parts of their soul and become their true self again, let it be you, he prays, so that you might once more remember yourself, he thinks, remember him, remember _us_.

It’s a fleeting dream, an illusion all too easily dispelled and a hope that flickers out all too soon. Your bravery counts for naught and your choices start to unravel your being. He sees you consume your final Lightwarden and watches in dismay as it starts to consume and change you, just like the rest. The disgust he shows you is as much directed at you as it is himself, for the hopes he had foolishly pinned on you, when after eons with your kind he thinks he should know better.

It’s a fleeting dream; much like the city he makes in the image of home, like a doll house full of shadows and memories. But it’s a fitting place for you to die; even if you don’t realise it. He offers to bring you home to die, even if both you and the home are just illusions.

And so you come to this city of shades, but you do so to fight, not to fall, despite your certain demise. It is as before; there is no other way, no alternative, but still you fight. Even though you cannot remember the fight of ages past, of a world past, you fight as the one you once were did before.

Not even a glimpse of the end of days can help you to remember. Not even being forced to go through the end of the world a second time changes your mind. You do not remember. But still, you fight.

The fates are forever cruel and on this day they see fit for you to regain another sliver of your soul, enough to make it half of the whole, and it shows. Perhaps it is but a trick of the light, but for a moment he sees you there, whole and defiant in all your glory.

It isn’t the first time you’ve stood against him. It breaks his heart no less now than it did the first time. The fates are cruel and even now, even with no memory of the former, still you cannot abide the choices he has had no option but to make, nor the actions he is forced to take to try to right past wrongs.

You fight desperately, furiously, gloriously. And, against all odds, it is you who ends up the victor.

A fleeting dream that ends a nightmare eons long. He fights you as he did before, and loses just the same. It is not so dramatic this time; worlds are not torn asunder, souls are not split and scattered. No, instead, the only damage is to one of three souls that had escaped such a fate, and you relieve him of the burden of immortality.

“Remember us,” is his final wish to you, the image of a long lost love. "Remember that we once lived."


End file.
